


The Girlfriend Trap

by eternaleponine



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clexa Week 2018, Crack, F/F, I Don't Even Know, It was funnier in my head, Matchmaking, Mistaken Identity, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 08:12:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13853622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: Clexa Week 2018 - Day 7 - Free DayClarke gets caught sketching a pretty girl in a coffee shop.  The girl introduces herself as Lexa.Why, then, does Lexa not seem to recognize Clarke when she shows up for what she thought was their first date?





	The Girlfriend Trap

_"Ugh, gross. Will you two get a room?"_

_"We're **in** a room."_

_"A room that isn't the living room."_

_"You know what your problem is?"_

_"I suspect you're going to tell me whether I want to hear it or not."_

_"Your problem is you need to get laid. It has been **way** too long since you've—"_

_"Sex isn't the answer to all of life's problems."_

_"Not all of them, no. It certainly won't solve world hunger or climate change. But it might help loosen the stick up your—"_

_"You've better think long and hard before you—"_

_"That's what **she** said."_

_"Oh for the love of—"_

_"You walked **right** into that one."_

_"And now I'm walking right back out. Don't have sex on the couch. There are other people who sit on it, too."_

* * *

Clarke couldn't help noticing the girl on the other side of the coffee shop, earbuds in her ears, tapping the end of her pen lightly against her notebook as she scanned over the same page of a textbook for what had to be the third or fourth time. Her chin was cupped in the palm of her hand, long fingers extending up her cheek. Her own fingers itched to draw her, and even though she was supposed to be studying, she finally gave in to the urge, pulling her sketchbook from her bag and freeing her drawing pencil from the metal coil at the top. 

She roughed in the outline of her quickly, capturing general shapes, the angle of her arm and the tilt of her head, and then began to add in details, layer after layer. At one point she let her left hand drop, just as Clarke was starting to shade her fingers, and she bit back a groan, but a second later she was back to propping her head up with it, and she managed to finish the drawing (as much as it was likely to get finished with a model who didn't know she was modeling) just as the girl started to gather her things. She added a few more shadows, wishing she had more than just pencil and paper to work with, wishing she'd taken a picture to use as a reference, but that would have been a little too stalker-y. 

"Can I see?"

Clarke's head jerked up and she found herself face to face with the girl. Or not exactly face to face, because she was sitting and the girl was standing, meaning she towered over Clarke. She seemed to notice the height disparity at the same time Clarke did, because she pulled over an empty chair and lowered herself into it. 

"I tried not to move too much," she said, "once I realized you were drawing me." She smiled, and holy hell did that smile do things to Clarke's stomach that were unfair, and possibly illegal in some states. "My—sister's boyfriend is an artist, too," she explained. "Although more street art than sitting quietly in coffeeshops sketching unsuspecting patrons." Her eyes were bright, her smile having lit them from within. It took any possible sting out of the words, turned them from an accusation to a tease. 

Clarke pulled her sketchbook back out and flipped to the page she'd been working on. "It's still pretty rough," she said. "I—"

"Are you kidding?" The girl looked at the drawing, then at Clarke, then back at the drawing. "It's amazing. If this is 'rough', I can't even imagine what you would consider a finished piece." 

"Unlikely," Clarke said. "Who has the time?"

The girl cocked her head. "You're not an art student?"

Clarke shook her head. "Pre-med. I just draw for fun. It helps me relax."

The girl nodded... and Clarke realized that she really didn't want to have to keep thinking of her as 'the girl'. "I'm Clarke," she said. 

"Lexa," the girl replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," Clarke said, offering her hand, which was only slightly smudged with graphite. Lexa took it and shook, and maybe Clarke imagined it, but she thought maybe her grip lingered just a little longer than was truly necessary to shake a near-stranger's hand. "What about you? What are you in for?" She grinned.

"Pre-law," Lexa said. "But I'm not sure if I actually want to be a lawyer. The more I learn, the more I want to just tear it all down and start over again, build a new system that works for everyone, brick-by-brick. But that's not how it works. It's like... I hate law, but the only way that I can change it is from within."

"That's a pretty big goal," Clarke said. 

"Why pre-med?" Lexa said. 

Clarke shrugged. "My mom's a doctor," she said, "and I've always been interested in it, I guess. I want to help people."

"By taking them apart and putting them back together?" Lexa asked. 

Clarke smiled. "I guess you could say that, although I think I would rather work on making sure that people don't get sick in the first place."

Lexa nodded, her eyes – a pale green that looked almost blue when the light caught them at certain angles, almost gray at others – practically glowing. "It's not so different, when you think about it. You want to help the people, I want to force the system to help the people."

"I guess it's not," Clarke said. 

Lexa's phone chimed. She pulled it out of her pocket and her nose wrinkled with distaste. "I have to get to class," she said. "Can I..." She hesitated, looking away like the bravado she'd shown coming up to her to ask about the drawing had finally worn off, and now she didn't quite know what to say. "Can I have your number?"

Clarke gave it to her, and Lexa plugged it into her phone. "I'll text you later so you have mine," she said. "See you around."

"I hope so," Clarke said, not sure if Lexa heard her because she was already halfway out the door.

* * *

**Lexa:** Hey Clarke. It's Lexa.

 **Clarke:** Hey! How are you?

 **Lexa:** Okay. Stressed.

 **Clarke:** Midterms?

 **Lexa:** Yes. 

**Clarke:** I know the feeling. I want to fix _people_ , not _plants_. Why do I need to know this shit?

 **Lexa:** Maybe we could meet up sometime? To take a break? Or after it's over, if you'd rather.

 **Clarke:** I'd like that.

 **Clarke:** A lot.

 **Lexa:** Just tell me when and where. 

**Clarke:** Friday? My last test is Thursday.

 **Lexa:** Sounds good. Where?

 **Clarke:** Coffee shop. Ten?

 **Lexa:** AM or PM?

 **Lexa:** Never mind, stupid question. It's closed at 10 pm.

 **Clarke:** You don't have any classes Friday, do you?

 **Lexa:** Not if I can avoid it. So no.

 **Clarke:** I'll see you at ten, then.

 **Lexa:** As long as we both survive 'til then.

 **Clarke:** Well, I DO know CPR, so if you find yourself feeling short of breath...

 **Lexa:** I'll keep that in mind.

* * *

Other than a few short exchanges, checking in to make sure the other was surviving midterms okay, Clarke didn't hear from or see Lexa again. She got to the coffee shop five minutes early, not wanting to take a chance that Lexa might think she'd stood her up. 

Apparently Lexa had had the same thought, because she was already there, sitting at a table in the corner with a giant mug and a book on the table in front of her. It was too small to be a textbook. Where she found the time for leisure reading, Clarke could only imagine, but maybe it was something that she made time for, like Clarke made time for art. 

It looked like midterms had been rough on her. There was a furrow between her eyebrows that hadn't been there a few days ago, a downturn to her mouth, and she had the posture of someone who was used to carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. A tiny piece of her was tempted to find a place to sit where Lexa couldn't see her, and spend the few minutes she had before they were supposed to meet sketching, but if Lexa caught her _again_...

Well, hopefully she would think it was funny. But Clarke kept her sketchbook and pencils tucked away, and instead got in line to get her coffee, carrying it carefully over to the table and setting it down. "Hey," she said.

Lexa looked up and her eyes narrowed. "Hello."

"How are you?" She started to sit down, but something in Lexa's expression made her hesitate. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, not sure what else to say. She wanted to ask what was wrong, why Lexa was practically glaring at her. She'd expected... or maybe not expected, but she'd thought...

Hell. She'd thought this was a date. That they'd been flirting and that this would be their first date, to figure out if the spark they'd had the first time they met was something that might kindle into more than friendship, or if it was just what you felt when you met a kindred spirit. Maybe that was written all over her face, and maybe she'd gotten it wrong, and Lexa's cold reception was to let her know that she was barking up the wrong tree. 

Lexa looked at her for another few seconds as Clarke hovered between sitting and standing, not sure whether she was staying or leaving, whether she was welcome. Lexa only looked away when her phone rattled on the table. She looked at the screen, then at Clarke, then back at the screen, her lips curling into a snarl. "I'm going to kill her."

"Kill who?" Clarke asked, even though she probably should have taken it as her signal to leave. 

But Lexa wasn't paying attention. She was texting furiously on her phone, her thumbs hitting the screen with more force than was necessary. Finally she just shook her head and threw it into the bag that sat at her feet. 

"Kill who?" Clarke asked again.

Lexa looked at her, blinking like she'd forgotten she was there, or maybe she'd assumed that Clarke would have walked away by now. If she had any sense at all, she probably should have. But now she was curious, and if curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back. 

"My sister," Lexa said. "I'm Lexa, by the way."

"I know," Clarke said. "We met—"

"No," Lexa said. "You don't, and we haven't."

Clarke finally sat down, because now she knew she wasn't leaving until she had some clue what the hell was going on. "What do you mean?"

"We didn't meet," Lexa said. "You met my sister. My _twin_ sister. Alicia."

"Oh." It was Clarke's turn for a furrowed brow and downturned mouth. "She said—"

"I know," Lexa said. "I guess I should say, I know _now_. I thought I was meeting _her_ here today." She pulled her phone out and tapped on the screen, bringing up the messages app and showing it to Clarke.

 **Alicia:** Don't be mad.

 **Alicia:** Her name is Clarke. 

**Alicia:** She's an artist. And a doctor in her spare time. ;-)

 **Alicia:** Just give her a chance.

Clarke snorted. "'And a doctor in her spare time,'" she muttered.

"She thinks she's funny," Lexa said. 

"So she was pretending to be you," Clarke said. "When I met her."

"That would seem to be the case," Lexa said. "She thinks I need to get—" She stopped herself, but it wasn't hard for Clarke to fill in the blank. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'll go." She started to pack up her stuff, shooting a nasty look at the barely touched mug like this was somehow all its fault. 

"You don't have to," Clarke said. "I can sit somewhere else. Let you finish your coffee in peace."

"Tea," Lexa said. "Chai." Her nose crinkled. "Which means the same thing, but here we think of chai as a pretty specific preparation of tea. A certain combination of spices. There's actually a linguistic thing, apparently. If tea came to a country over sea, it's called tea, if it came by land, it's called chai, because of the region it came from. Or so I read on the internet." Her nose wrinkled even more and she shook her head. "Not to bore you with useless trivia."

"It's not boring," Clarke said. "I've never actually had chai. Or tea, except iced tea."

"Never..." Lexa looked momentarily horrified, but her expression quickly smoothed back to blankness, and then to something more... friendly, Clarke guessed. "Did you want to try a sip? It should be cool enough now." She slid her mug across the table toward Clarke. 

"I—" Clarke started, then stopped herself because she got the feeling that it maybe wasn't just tea that Lexa was offering. Maybe this was a kind of olive branch, to smooth over her initial reaction. Not that Clarke could blame her. She didn't know what it was like to have a sister, or any kind of sibling, much less a twin, so she couldn't really say that she understood what it must be like to have them impersonate you for the purposes of... well.

She hadn't been wrong. Lexa – no, Alicia – _had_ been flirting with her... on Lexa's behalf. Like she was trying to set the two of them up. Which Clarke imagined was intensely irritating for Lexa, but from where she sat, as the one whose identity hadn't been stolen – borrowed – it was also kind of sweet, since it didn't seem as if she was doing it for any kind of malicious reason. 

"Sure," she said after second, picking up the mug and taking a slip. Sweetness and spice rolled over her tongue, and fast on its heels was the thought of what it would be like to suck that taste from Lexa's lips, and she felt heat rush to her face. She hoped that Lexa would think it was just because of the warmth of the coffee shop and the drink. She set the mug down. "It's good," she said. 

Lexa smiled, then reached across the table and swiped her thumb across the tip of Clarke's nose. "You had some foam," she said. 

"Thanks," Clarke replied. "You can, uh, try my coffee if you want."

"I don't like coffee," Lexa said. "Even with tons of sugar, it's too bitter." One corner of her mouth quirked up. "Alicia would say that that's why I should like it. That it suits me." There wasn't much ire in the statement, more amusement or maybe chagrin. 

"Don't kill her," Clarke said. "I have a better idea."

* * *

Clarke stood outside one of the classroom buildings, trying not to make it look like she was lying in wait. She wanted it to seem like she just happened to be passing by... just like she and Lexa had planned. 

"Hey!" she called, when she finally spotted a familiar face and form coming out of the building. She quickened her pace to catch up to her, falling into step beside her. On the girl's other side was a tall black boy, who looked at her curiously, but not _too_ curiously. He probably just assumed that Clarke was some friend of Alicia's. 

"Hi," Alicia said. "Nice to see you again."

"You too," Clarke said, moving in for a hug, which Alicia returned a little awkwardly. "How was class?"

"It was good," Alicia said. "I—" She looked at the boy beside her. "I guess I should introduce you. Clarke, this is Matt. Matt, Clarke. I told you about Clarke. She's an artist, too." Clarke saw the way her eyes widened, like she was trying to telegraph some kind of message straight into Matt's head. 

"Oh, is this your sister's boyfriend?" Clarke asked. She held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."

Matt took her hand and shook it, mumbling something polite even as his eyes darted to Alicia like he was looking for some kind of explanation. So maybe Alicia _hadn't_ let him in on her little matchmaking scheme. 

"So are we still on for tonight?" Clarke asked. 

"To—" Alicia stopped. "Yes, of course."

Clarke smiled. "Great. I accidentally deleted your text. Can you send me the address again?"

"Of course," Alicia said. "I don't know it off the top of my head, so I'll have to send it in a little bit. If that's all right."

"That's fine," Clarke replied. "I'll see you tonight."

"Yes. Can't wait," Alicia said, the flicker of panic in her eyes dimming as she smiled at Clarke, replaced by something like hope, although whether it was hope for the future of her sister's love life or hope that Clarke would walk away soon, she didn't know.

* * *

**Lexa:** Was it super awkward?

 **Clarke:** Yes. Her boyfriend was with her.

 **Lexa:** I figured he would be. :-D

 **Clarke:** You're going to tell her you have class tonight?

 **Lexa:** Not class. She would know that's a lie. A meeting for a group project.

 **Clarke:** Ugh.

 **Lexa:** I know. Luckily it's not real, since I've already basically taken the stupid project over so my grade doesn't get tanked by a bunch of idiots.

 **Clarke:** Has she texted you?

 **Lexa:** Not yet. 

**Clarke:** What do you think she's going to do?

 **Lexa:** No idea. 

**Clarke:** I guess we'll have to wait and see.

* * *

Clarke was surprised when she got a text with the address where she and Lexa had decided they were going to go on their second 'date'. She had assumed that Alicia would cancel when Lexa told her that she had something else she had to do that night, since that's what Lexa would have had to do if they'd really set up a date, but then this was all a lie, wasn't it? A well-meaning one, maybe, but a lie nonetheless. 

She was even more surprised when Alicia showed up. She pretty sure it was Alicia, anyway. If it wasn't... Lexa would tell her, wouldn't she? She wouldn't let Clarke believe that she was her sister pretending to be her... would she? 

"I have to admit," Alicia said, "I don't know a lot about art. But it's free for students tonight, so..." She flashed a smile. 

"Full disclosure," Clarke said, "I don't actually know a lot about art either. Certain artists, certain periods, yeah, but... mostly I just like creating art. Art history... I took a class in art history one time, and I was bored to tears. But maybe that was the professor's fault. I'm sure there are ways to make it more interesting. He just didn't bother."

"The Professor Binns of art," Alicia said.

Clarke grinned. "Exactly. Shall we go in?"

"Sure," Alicia said. She offered her elbow, and Clarke took it, wondering if she was doing it because that was something that Lexa would do, or if it was an Alicia thing that she'd done without thinking about it. 

They went inside, touring the galleries, talking about the things they liked and the things that they didn't really understand how they qualified as art. Clarke found herself regretting this more and more as the evening went on, because she was genuinely enjoying herself... with the wrong person, and she had no way of knowing whether Alicia was being herself or Lexa, and she wanted to just abort the entire plan, to admit that they were trying to catch Alicia in her lie, to make her admit what she'd done. 

 

This had all been so stupid. They had wanted to make Alicia squirm, but it was Clarke who was squirming, wishing she could crawl out of her own skin. 

"Excuse me," she said, breaking away from Alicia when she spotted a sign for a restroom and darting into it, locking herself in a stall.

She pulled out her phone. 

**Clarke:** I can't do this. 

**Clarke:** This was a mistake. 

**Lexa:** Can't do what?

 **Clarke:** Not with her. 

**Clarke:** I don't want to be doing this with her.

 **Lexa:** Doing what?

 **Clarke:** Anything! I'm on a fucking date with your fucking twin sister who has a fucking boyfriend and I don't know how good she is at being you. I don't know if

Clarke stopped, backspaced the last four words and sent the message before she could overthink it.

 **Lexa:** Ten minutes.

**Clarke:/b > What?**

**Lexa:** I'll be there in ten minutes. I meant to get there earlier but ironically I had to deal with something for the stupid project that I lied about. 

**Clarke:** Okay.

She could be okay for ten minutes. She had to be. She stayed where she was, clutching her phone and willing the screen to light up, but no luck.

She heard a knock on the stall door. "Are you okay?"

Alicia. 

"Fine," she said. "Sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go." She stood up and the toilet automatically flushed. She tucked her phone into her pocket and stepped out of the stall, going to the sinks to wash her hands because even though she hadn't done anything, just touching anything in a public restroom was asking to be coated in bacteria. 

"Are you sure?" Alicia asked. She caught Clarke's eye in the mirror. "You seem... upset."

"I'm sure," Clarke lied. 

"Okay. Did you want to keep going, or...?"

"Up to you," Clarke said, even though she didn't really want to keep going. She wanted to just go home, curl up in a nest of cozy blankets with some hot cocoa and watch a movie she'd seen a million times before or something. But she had to kill ten minutes somehow. 

"We can at least finish the gallery we were in," Alicia said. "Then decide."

Clarke nodded her agreement, following her out of the bathroom and back into the gallery. She was careful now to keep a little space between them at all times, not wanting to even brush up against her, for fear that it would feed into her misplaced feelings. 

How had she ever thought this would be a good idea?

Clarke kept checking her watch until finally ten minutes had passed. She tried not to make it obvious that she was looking around, trying to spot Lexa. They hadn't actually said where they were going to meet up, but it was too late to figure that out now. _Damn it._ "I think I'm ready to be done," she said. "If you are."

"Yeah," Alicia said. "Let's go."

They made their way to the coat check and got in line, standing not quite looking at each other. "I had a good time tonight," Clarke said, and meant it, and wished that she didn't.

"So did—"

"Lexa!" 

Alicia turned to look, and all of the color drained from her face when she saw Lexa coming toward them. "Oh," she said. "Um, hi. I thought—"

"We got done early," Lexa said. "Who's this?"

"Clarke," Alicia said. "This is Clarke."

"Ahhh," Lexa said, raising her eyebrows and giving them both what Clarke assumed was meant to be a knowing looking. "So _this_ is Clarke." She looked at Clarke, turning so that her sister couldn't see it when she winked. "I've heard so much about you. It's nice to finally have a face to put with the name."

"It's all lies," Clarke said, smiling back, feeling a little more sure-footed now that they were back in this together. "Whatever she's said."

"I hope not," Lexa said. "Because then I would have to chase you off. It would be my duty as an older sister." 

"You're not—" Alicia started, then seemed to remember her role. "I never lie." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she flushed and cleared her throat. "Not about anything important, anyway." But she seemed to realize that that only dug her grave deeper as Clarke and Lexa both turned to look at her. "Shit." She looked back and forth between them, finally settling on Clarke. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Clarke asked. "Not why are you sorry. Why did you do it?"

Alicia glanced at Lexa, then looked back at Clarke. "I don't know," she said. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." 

"That's not good enough," Lexa said. 

"Do we have to do this here?" Alicia asked. 

"What, you don't want me to cause a scene?" Lexa asked, but then she seemed to deflate a little. "Do you really want to go?" she asked Clarke. 

Clarke nodded. She wasn't going to be able to focus on pictures on the walls tonight, no matter how this went down. 

"Okay." Lexa moved half a step closer to her, her hand brushing Clarke's, and her fingers closed around Clarke's, squeezing for just a second before letting go. Clarke pulled her hand away, clasping it in her other hand and rubbing at her fingers to try and make the tingling that had started at Lexa's touch go away. She tried not to notice the hurt in Lexa's eyes when she did it. 

They got their coats and found the exit. The chill of the evening air helped clear Clarke's head a little, made it easier to breathe. "Seriously," she asked. "Why did you do it?"

Alicia's shoulders slumped. "Ever since her girlfriend broke up with her, Lexa has been moping. She only leaves the house when she has to; she has no social life whatsoever. I noticed you drawing me, and... I don't know. I just..." She frowned. "I knew that Lexa would never agree to go on a blind date, and I honestly don't know what it was, but I got the feeling right away that you were someone that she might... connect with. So I just said that I was her. I figured if you were interested, you would agree to meet up again, and then I would just arrange the blind date without either of you knowing what it actually was. I guess I assumed that Lexa would just go with it and make me pay for it later. I didn't think she would tell you, and once you actually got to know each other, it wouldn't matter."

"Because basing a relationship on a lie is a great place to start," Lexa said. "Seriously, Alicia?"

"It wouldn't be a lie!" Alicia snapped. "We talked for a couple of minutes. That's all. If you had just gone with it, it would have been you that she was getting to know. That wouldn't have been a lie. Maybe later on down the road it would have been a funny story to tell. 'Hey, remember how you met me in a coffee shop when I caught you drawing me? That was actually my twin sister, who pretended to be me to set us up.'" 

"Leaving me to wonder at what point Lexa became Lexa, how long you'd been playing games. You showed up here tonight still pretending to be her when you could have just said something came up and rescheduled! Even if you're really good at pretending to be her..." Clarke shook her head. "You realize how fucked up this all is, right?"

"Yes," Alicia said. "And I'm sorry."

Clarke believed her. Maybe she shouldn't have, but she did. She looked at Lexa, who didn't seem quite so forgiving, but then she was the one whose sister was playing matchmaker, and who apparently had been through some kind of traumatic breakup recently. 

"Just go," Lexa said. "Unless you have anything else you want to say to her?" She looked at Clarke expectantly.

"No," Clarke said. "You can go."

"I'm sorry," Alicia said for a third time. She started to say something but closed her mouth before anything came out and walked away. 

"I'm sorry too," Lexa said. "I thought... I thought that would be a lot more satisfying."

"It was my idea," Clarke pointed out. 

"I agreed to it."

Clarke looked at her, at the green-blue-gray eyes that were no less captivating than they had been when she'd admired them in Alicia's face, at the curve of the lips that she'd imagined kissing the taste of chai from, and those _had_ been Lexa's lips, not Alicia's. It didn't make it not fucked up, but did it mean that there wasn't still a chance that there could be something between them? 

"Do you want to—" she started to ask.

At the same time, Lexa said, "Maybe we can start—"

They both stopped, forcing down smiles. It was Lexa who spoke again first. "I'm going to go to that coffee shop," she said, pointing to one across the street. "I have some reading I need to catch up on."

"Okay," Clarke said. She held Lexa's gaze for another second, then watched as she crossed the street. She let a few minutes pass, and then followed her, getting a coffee and then settling at a table far enough away from Lexa that she wouldn't immediately draw her attention. She pulled her sketchbook from her bag and loosened the pencil from the coil at the top, glancing at Lexa every few seconds to make sure that she got every line, every angle, just right. 

She was busy shading when Lexa got up and came over. "Can I see?" she asked. 

Clarke looked up at her and smiled, turning the sketchbook around to show her. "It's still a little rough," she said. 

Lexa's eyebrows went up. "If that's rough, then I can only imagine what a finished piece would look like."

"Who has the time?" Clarke asked. 

"I'm Lexa, by the way," Lexa said, offering her hand. 

"Clarke," she replied, taking it and not so much shaking it as squeezing, more than a little tempted to pull her down and... she didn't even know what. "I feel like I've seen you before..." She let go of her hand and flipped through her sketchbook to show her the original drawing. 

"That was probably my sister," Lexa said. "Twin sister. Alicia. Wearing one of my flannels." She wrinkled her nose in mostly-feigned annoyance. "Sometimes I think she wants to be me when she grows up." Her eyes were bright as she smiled. "Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Clarke said. "Can I get you something? It seems only fair. Compensation for modeling for me, even if you didn't know you were doing it." 

"Sure," Lexa said. "Medium chai latte."

"I'll be right back." Clarke went to get in line, watching out of the corner of her eye as Lexa moved her things from her table to Clarke's. She ordered the tea, and a cream cheese brownie for them to share, and returned to the table. 

"Oh," Lexa said, "those are my favorite."

"Mine too," Clarke said. "So... tell me about yourself."

They stayed at the coffee shop until it closed, talking about anything and everything that popped into their heads, getting to know each other without it really feeling like that's what they were trying to do. And at the end of the night, after they'd been shooed out onto the sidewalk so the baristas could clean the place up and go home, Clarke learned that chai and chocolate were an amazing combination, especially when you tasted them on the lips of a beautiful girl whose smile made your heart skip a beat, and whose touch turned your insides molten. 

"We should do this again," Clarke said.

"We should," Lexa agreed, and kissed her again, which hadn't been what Clarke meant but she wasn't going to argue. "Soon."

"Tomorrow?"

"Okay."

"Just tell me when and where."

* * *

_"Will you two get a room?"_

_"We're in a room._

_"A room other than the living room."_

_"Turnabout is fair play."_

_"And you know that you only have yourself to blame for this."_

_"Don't remind me._ A pause. A beat. _"Lexa?"_

_"Are you still here?"_

_"You're welcome."_

_"Don't press your luck."_ One breath. Another. _"Alicia?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Thank you."_

_"Just... don't have sex on the couch. Other people sit on it too."_

_"We'll take that under advisement."_

**Author's Note:**

> I can't remember how, exactly, this story came about, but I'm pretty sure it's [rsconne's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsconne/pseuds/rsconne) fault.


End file.
